Organization | Top Five: Ikea For Craft Storage

I’ll just say it – I love Ikea. Our closest one is almost two hours away in Orlando, so I don’t get to go as often as I’d like, but despite this, Ikea products are rapidly taking over our home decor. And my scrap studio is no exception.

If you are a crafter looking to get organized, Ikea is absolute heaven! From the basic surfaces you need to work on, to storage for all of your supplies, the store has fabulous options for practically every craft storage challenge. And the best part is – you won’t break the bank!

Tables

Ikea’s selection of interchangeable table tops & legs are a dream for the creatively minded studio designer. They are simple, versatile, durable and practical, available in a variety of sizes and finishes – and affordable. The basic white 47 1/4×23 5/8″ model shown below, a Hissmon/Adils combination, has an MSRP of only $59.99:

I have several of the previous version of these tables in my work studio (and elsewhere in my home) and they are durable and functional.

Alex Drawer Units

Bar none, the Ikea Alex drawer units are the perhaps most wonderful organizing units ever invented. They are available in three sizes. The small, short version with 5 drawers can serve as the end of a desk unit (like mine below) or stand alone, and retails for $79.99.

The taller version of that same unit has 9 drawers and retails for $119.99.

There is also a wider version, with wheels, that has shallower drawers, that retails for $119.99. I have two of those in my home – one in my scrap room and one in my office, where it serves as a printer cart and for office supply storage.

The three shallower drawers at the top I use for ink pad storage mostly:

The three bottom drawers are deeper than the top three but still fairly shallow. I use them as a way to keep small embellishments corralled and organized, and to keep my most-used favorites close at hand.

One thing you’ve probably noticed in all of those drawers is that I’ve divided almost all of them with small bins. The slatted ones are from Walmart and the other ones are available at Walmart, Target and a variety of other stores. The division helps keep all of my space organized and my small items contained and not moving around. It also makes it possible for me to take a bin out onto the surface of my table to work with if I’d like.

Expedit

This is probably the most common item to see in craft rooms. It’s Ikea’s all-purpose cube-configured bookcase and shelving unit, available in a huge variety of sizes and colors.

The 8 cube unit is one of the most popular – it retails for $69.99 for the basic white finish:

Fintorp & Bygel rail systems

For those who want to use their walls for storage, Ikea has multiple rail system options in their kitchen department. The Fintorp and Bygel systems are basically design variations on the same theme: a rail off of which hangs buckets and hooks. With rails, buckets, and hooks all priced under $10, these elements can create a very affordable way to take your storage vertical – and they look nice too!

Råskog Kitchen Cart

The kitchen section is also home to a cart that has a cult following among crafters – the Råskog. This three-tiered rolling steel cart is available in Turquoise and Dark Gray, and retails for $49.99. It’s so popular it can frequently be difficult to locate! It’s perfect for storing tools that you want to keep right next to a work table, or for crafters who share a work space who want to be able to put their tools away somewhere else when they are done.

Do you use Ikea for craft storage? What is your favorite? Tell us about it!

I use the six-shelf Billy line of bookcases from Ikea. I have five of them in my craft room – three along one wall. Only the center and bottom shelves are fixed for structural stability. The other four shelves are adjustable and I arrange them into Album height, vertical-paper-storage height, etc.

I lived within a 30 minute drive of Ikea when we lived in Houston and never thought of it for scrap storage. My first-born dd loved that place and we spent many an hour there shopping to furnish her apt (not to mention hours of putting things together!) Now seeing crafters using Ikea for their craft rooms, makes me want them too…but now I’m over 2 1/2 hours away from the nearest one!!
Thanks for posting these storage ideas!

In a perfect world with unlimited funds, I would love to outfit my craft room with these products. Having everything matching and pretty would be delightful. As it is, about the only thing I’ve had to buy are Sterilite drawers of various sizes to hold stamps and other supplies. Everything else in my room is a hodgepodge of file cabinets, dressers, desks and shelves that were repurposed from other rooms in my house or bought at garage sales or store closings. The table on which I work was being thrown out from a motel where my son worked at the time. I do LOVE the pegboard over my work table that has a couple of old cassette holders that house my stamp pads. The room is functional, but not pretty. LOL

The nice thing about shopping Ikea is that you can buy stuff over time and their style stays consistent so it will match. Their very spare style also matches easily with other things – the white cubes and bookcases in my room I’ve had for something like ten years, from other stores! The shelves were also on the wall for years, and they are from Home Depot. I bought the big drawer unit about 3 years ago from Ikea, and then for the recent overhaul just had to add the 2nd drawer unit and the tables. It cost me less than $200 initially for the overhaul since I already had some of the stuff, and then later I went back and added the pegboard when I got inspired to do that.

In Puerto Rico we finally have Ikea’s but not the store it is like a showroom where you make your order and pick up later, or you can order online and then pick up when they prompt it. But I have loved Ikea from forever, whenever I went to the states I bought something. Now I have the table you showed but the longest one in white as well since I already had the cube system in white. Now I need to buy the table you show here but I have seen at a lesser price like $30 which I will use for my sewing machine. They also have the cubes in color (baskets) for the cube system which you can use to store and not show and it also brings a pop of color to the room. I also have a white chair do not remember the model. Hopefuly wil get the drawers but I have a ot of the plastic ones that Kmart and Walmart offer.

Love the kitchen cart, I have it in turquoise. It is so convenient. I can roll it from my craft room to my dining room to play. Have all my copics and pencils in it to color and use the bottom area for scraps.

I have the Expedit shelves and also some desks. My craft space is now on my did if room so I’ve gone with the black/brown which sadly means the Alex drawers won’t work for me. I do want to get a cart though

My nearest stores are both 12 hours drive away but on rare visits I have picked uo many things including three raskog carts, two for me and one for the craft supplies of my six year old dd who loves having a cart just like mummy 🙂

Our extra bedroom is a combination office/scrap room for me (I work from home). I have an Ikea desk in a corner configuration, Billy book shelves, an Expedit 4×4 shelf unit, a 2-cabinet unit on the wall, and the little Raskog cart in turquoise, which I use for my project life stuff. I love the Alex drawer unit, wish I had room for it. I love Ikea and we now have one half an hour away in Tampa so it can be pretty dangerous!

Don’t forget that some of the IKEA free standing kitchen cabinet islands make great work “benches” for those who like to stand when they work (and has lots of storage underneath in the cabinets). I have one in the middle of my room and love the large butcher block workspace on top.

I use the Besta shelves from Ikea rather than the Expedit. They are deep like the Expedit, but the shelves are adjustable and I think it’s more attractive. Love, love the Alex drawers and their desks. I really want the Raskog cart, too.

I use many of the items you mentioned, but my Favorite Ikea scrapbooking storage item is the Stall Shoe Cabinet. It has tilt out drawers that work perfectly to hold Cropper Hopper Paper Files with all my paper sorted and organized. You can flip through your stash, pull what you need and easily keep it organized. It holds a TON of paper in small amount of space. LOVE IT!

I have been collecting Ikea Alex furniture over 6 years now. A piece at a time is affordable and once I finally had my own Playroom (as I call it) when my daughter moved to her own place, all that Alex stuff fit perfectly.

Well, I will admit it took about 7 arrangements for it to finally work for me!

Alex now offers a file drawer unit. There are 3 shallow drawers and a very deep drawer for hanging files.